Tourmobile’s Twilight Tour of National Monuments in Washington DC is Worth the Money

Benefits of an Evening Tour of the Monuments

If you travel to Washington D.C. in the summer, be sure to book an evening bus tour of the national monuments. The tours offer several advantages over walking through the monuments in the daytime:

1) You can see the monuments lit up against the night sky

2) You can cover several monuments more quickly with less pounding on your feet

3) The temperature is much more pleasant on a summer evening

4) You will have a guide that can tell you a little about the history and interesting facts about the monuments.

Tourmobile’s Tours Are a Good Deal for the Money

Several companies vie for this tourist staple, each with their own selling points. My family of three (two 50-year-old parents, and a 13-year-old daughter) chose a company called Tourmobile, and found the staff helpful, the guide funny and interesting and the experience worth the money.

What’s Tourmobile’s Price?

We took the tour in June of 2011 and paid $30 for each adult and $15 for our daughter. The tour took about four hours, and we saw about 40 sites. We felt it was well worth the money for the amount of time, the pleasant ride and the knowledgeable guide.

How’s Tourmobile’s Bus?

The bus has open-air windows, but not an open top. Our tour guide rolled up the shades on the windows so that we could get a fresh breeze, and we could also take pictures from the bus without having to worry about any window glare. It was not an open-top bus, like the double-deckers, but since it looked like it might rain that night, we were happy to have a roof over our heads.

The seats were fairly comfortable and the ride was fairly smooth. It was relatively clean and well-maintained.

How’s Tourmobile’s Guide?

The guide was the best part of the tour, an amiable fellow with a dry wit. When we passed by the Bureau of Engraving, he explained that citizens could tour the building that printed paper money, but “they don’t give out free samples.” When some of the children were trying to catch lightning bugs at one of the stops, he said lightning bugs had been declared an “endangered insect” in Washington D.C. and they should let their bugs go. The company probably has more than one guide for this tour, but my guess is that they are all charming “people persons,” or they wouldn’t last long in this job.

One thing that I appreciated about this company was that they didn’t make their tour guide try to talk drive at the same time. Our tour had a driver (whom the guide said look just like Lou Gossett Jr., and he was right!) separate from the guide.

The guide gave us just about the right amount of information about each point of interest, which helped us understand some of the significance of what we were seeing, but not so much that our heads were swimming with details. Here are some of the factoids we learned:

– The Washington Memorial changes color about a third of the way up because the Washington Monument society ran out of money, and by the time they started it up again, they had to use a different kind of stone.

– Roosevelt’s little dog, Fala, was buried with him

– The bronze relief in the Roosevelt Memorial shows images taken from newsreel footage of his first inauguration.

What Did Tourmobile Cover?

The bus drives by most of the tourist spots in Washington DC and covers the monuments by the Tidal Basin and the Potomac. It starts at Union Station and goes by the Capitol, then turns along the National Mall past The Air and Space Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, the Holocaust Museum, and then over by the tidal basin for the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, then turning back again for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the White House, the Old Post Office, and then the other side of the mall, past the Museum of American History, the Museum of Natural History, the national Gallery of Art, another look at the US Capitol lit up at night, and then back to Union Station.

Did Tourmobile Allow Enough Time?

Four hours was about right for an overview of the monuments and for snapping a few photos. The guide got off with us at two stops: the FDR Memorial, and the WWII Memorial. Each one has many facets, and we appreciated the additional information on that the tour guide gave us as he walked us through those memorials. Any tour has to balance those people who want to sink their teeth into every detail with those who are happy just driving by and waving at a site. I personally would have liked to spend a little more time at the Roosevelt Memorial, but on the other hand, arriving back at Union Station at 10:30 was late enough.

Other Nice Tourmobile Touches

-The guide would tell us when a nice photo opportunity was coming up, in enough time for us to get out our cameras and get the shot. The bus driver would slow down enough that we could sometimes get two or three photos in.

-The guide pointed out where we could find the bathrooms at each stop.

-The guide got off at the Vietnam Veteran’s Monument and pointed the way toward it and the Korean Veteran’s Monument since it’s a little confusing to find your way in the dark.

-The route was planned well. There was still enough daylight to see the FDR Memorial, but by the time we got to the Lincoln Memorial, it was dark enough for the lights to make the sight dramatic.

-It was nice to see the Capitol twice – once in the light, and once when the lights were on at night.

Anything You Didn’t Like about Tourmobile?

Trust me, I usually find something to complain about, but with this tour, there was surprisingly little. I can just think of a couple of things: the tour advertises that you’ll see the eternal flame for JFK at Arlington, and you do – but it’s way off on the distance. Hardly worth being called a highlight. And, on a clear warm night, it might be more pleasant to take one of the double-decker tours-provided you get on the top. You’d have a broader view to see everything and take photos. Still, since you get off at every monument, you get plenty of chances to see everything.

All in all, our family was pleased with the Tourmobile experience, so much so that we consider it the highlight of our D.C. experience.

For more photos, click the following link:

Slideshow: Selected Sites from Tourmobile’s Washington DC Monuments Tour


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